Marines tackle land navigation for infantry training

Editor’s note: This is the second article in a nine-part series following Infantry Training Battalion during a full course of training at the School of Infantry, Camp Lejeune.

THOMAS BRENNAN Daily News Staff

Editor’s note: This is the second article in a nine-part series following Infantry Training Battalion during a full course of training at the School of Infantry, Camp Lejeune.

The twig’s snap and rustling leaves were the only signs someone was nearby.

As week three at the Infantry Training Battalion came to an end, the students of Bravo Company refined their patrolling fundamentals and land-navigation skills deep in the woods of Camp Lejeune.

Wearing woodland fatigues and faces painted in camouflage, they emerged from the woods exhausted and sweat-stained after their final patrolling examination of the week.

“Boot camp prepared us mentally; but this wears you down physically, right to your breaking point. And then, when you least expect it, they push you even further,” said Pvt. Reynard Cortez, 20, of Newburgh, N.Y. “You just have to push through it and reestablish your new limit.”

The week’s high humidity and temperatures made the training more challenging for the students, Cortez said. Such conditions tested some students’ motivation toward the training, he added.

With hours of classes, training and studying, the Marines finally began working together as a squad as they practiced immediate action drills to ambushes, contact drills and patrol formations. Cortez, a hands-on learner, said the classroom lessons finally sank in with physical activity.

“You’re doing something new every day which is awesome,” Cortez said. “It brings a different challenge each day ...and when you’re done for the day you feel a sense of satisfaction — like you’ve accomplished something.”

Cortez looks forward to learning more basic rifleman skills, and in five weeks, to graduate.

“Giving up isn’t a possibility for me,” Cortez said. “I think about my friends and family. I’m doing this to protect them and the people who can’t protect themselves.”

Long hours for the students meant long hours for the combat instructors, who also donned camouflage paint as they taught and critiqued students, said Sgt. Christopher Ahaus, 27, of Indianapolis.

“Most of these Marines, in the beginning, don’t know how to read a map, which makes our jobs challenging,” Ahaus said. “We teach them how to plot grids, shoot an azimuth, identify topography and more. It’s really an in-depth, but necessary, skill they need to master.”

For the instructors, the job is to identify and connect with the Marines’ different learning styles.

Some learn visually while others learn through hearing or by doing.

Identifying how each student learns best and training them that way is a daily challenge, according to Ahaus.

“We try to cater to each student’s needs to ensure they are grasping the material,” Ahaus said. “Patrolling and land navigation fundamentals are the backbone of what the infantry does. This is a very important week of their training.”

Each student was given a compass and a map and is expected to be able to navigate from one point to another using their pre-determined pace count — a measure of how many steps they average over 100 meters — all while maintaining an aggressive and assertive patrol posture, Ahaus said.

“The enemy is always watching once you’re overseas,” Ahaus said. “We try to ingrain that in their heads. That way they always keep their head on a swivel. They need to understand they cannot show weakness or laziness or else the enemy capitalizes on that.

“We hold them to the standard that exists in a combat zone,” Ahaus said. “We train them to keep each other alive.”